Serie A champions Inter Milan will welcome Atalanta to the San Siro this weekend as the two sides play in their first monumental league game of the season as both clubs have had a relatively generous start to the 2021/22 campaign.
Despite this, Atalanta have had far from a convincing start to both their European and domestic campaigns, with the club, for the first time since they arrived a few years back, having a tough beginning in terms of results.
The club drew their first Champions League game with Villarreal earlier on and back in Italy, prior to their recent back-to-back wins, had lost one, won one and drawn the other.
Atalanta have, however, hit some form now by beating Sassuolo and Salernitana to get six points on the board and move them closer towards the top end of the table where they now sit sixth, five points off leaders Napoli and just three off Inter.
In the games where the club failed to win, Atalanta were done over by two Dusan Vlahovic penalties against Fiorentina and failed to do anything against Bologna, in what was a very lacklustre clash.
Nevertheless, the bad form seems to be behind them for now, as they have come back fighting with two wins from two games, but against Inter, it is not expected that such a win streak will continue, which could throw them back towards the bottom half.
As for Inter, their start to their Serie A title defence has gone quite well and they have only dropped two points to this date, which came just after the international break when they drew 2-2 with Sampdoria.
Federico Domenico and Lautaro Martinez both scored again that day and their forms have been sold since the departure of Romelu Lukaku.
The Milan side did enter this season with plenty of worries without their star striker and after the departure of Antonio Conte.
Soon after, however, four wins and one draw would follow and they are perhaps the favourites once again for the Serie A crown.
Inter are also the highest scorers in the Italian top flight and one of the highest-scoring sides across Europe this campaign, as they have netted an impressive 18 goals from five games and let in just five.
Combine this with the likes of Juventus and Atalanta dropping points, and we’re already seeing a bit of a gap be created on the top four and those challenging for the title.
Ahead of the game, Forebet predicts another win for the champions that will see over 2.5 goals.